Sanity Check
by janiejanine
Summary: Shepard and Kaidan take a night to themselves.


The hotel room is clean, bland, antiseptic. The walls are white, the carpet is beige. It's the most aggressively boring place Shepard's ever seen, and that includes military starships and sterile Cerberus labs.

She's glad they came here, instead of to the _Normandy_. It's nice. No prying eyes. No memories.

As she lies curled on her side, with Kaidan's arms around her, she allows herself a sigh of pure contentment. She's exhausted, sated, and a little bit sticky. She'd done a lot of sweating that afternoon, and all of it had been one hundred percent worth it.

She snuggles closer and closes her eyes. As soon as she can muster up the energy to get out of bed, she'll have to take a shower. A long, hot shower. Preferably with company.

The moment doesn't last long before her stomach growls loudly enough to make her jump.

Kaidan stirs sleepily beside her. "Hungry?" he asks. She can almost hear his raised eyebrow.

It hadn't occurred to her, but now that her stomach's brought it up, she realizes she's starving. "When did we eat last?"

He checks the clock. "About...eight hours ago."

"Holy shit. How did that happen?" Granted, she'd been distracted, but this is extreme even for her. She fires up her omni-tool and is happy to discover that her favorite asari takeout place is still there, right around the corner in Bachjret Ward. At least some things haven't changed.

Within seconds, their order is placed. (She still remembers exactly what to get - funny how some things stick with her no matter what.) She sprawls back on the bed as Kaidan digs the TV remote out of a drawer and begins idly flipping channels.

A burst of dramatic music makes him pause. There's a montage of faces, gunfire, and then the title flashes across the screen: _CITADEL_.

"Wait, I saw an ad for that," Shepard says. "Isn't that about us?"

"It's supposed to be," Kaidan replies with disdain.

"Did you ever see it?"

"No."

She sits up, interest piqued. "Who played me?"

"You don't want to know."

"Oh. That bad, huh?" She supposes something unembarrassing would have been too much to hope for. "Who played you?"

He winces and doesn't answer.

"Okay, that's it. We have to watch it." She makes a grab for the remote, but he holds it out of her reach.

"Are you sure?" he says.

Instead of answering, she leans in and kisses him. The tip of her tongue traces his lower lip, and he responds with a low, interested hum that makes her smile against his mouth. She shivers with pleasure as his hand runs up her bare back to tangle in her hair. With him, something as simple as a kiss becomes electric, and she still thrills at the novelty of it. She could almost forget about food.

Almost. As his arm tightens around her waist, she reaches back, plucks the remote from his hand, and says "Aren't you curious?"

"Are you sure?" he asks again, quietly.

"I can handle it if you can." She meets his gaze. "Can you?"

After a moment, he nods. "Yeah." He cracks a tiny smile. "It's probably a piece of shit."

"Probably."

The opening credits have barely finished rolling when the door buzzes. Shepard wraps up in the first sheet she can lay a hand on and swoops to the door, snagging the bag from the startled deliveryman and swinging the door shut before flopping back down on the bed.

Inhaling deeply, she savors the familiar scent wafting from the carton. It's been a long time.

She pokes Kaidan in the ribs and peers over his shoulder. "Is there any brown stuff in there?"

He reaches into the bag and extracts an assortment of flavor packets. "What is this?" he asks, handing her one.

She shrugs. "Brown."

"I didn't know you were a gourmet, Shepard."

"Bite me, Major."

He grins. "Maybe later."

She turns her attention to the screen, where a woman who might look like her if she lost 25 pounds of muscle and had an extra two hours to get ready in the morning is striding through a reasonably faithful replica of the original _Normandy_'s bridge. She empties the packet and slurps up a noodle.

Kaidan picks up his own carton and says, thoughtfully, "I've never eaten naked before."

"Really? Not even alone?" She'd always thought that was one of those universal things, like singing in the shower.

"Never felt the need."

She pats his thigh. "It's okay. We're going to be doing a lot of things naked from now on."

When he blushes, she notes, he blushes _everywhere_.


End file.
